The dazzling display at the opening and
closing ceremonies at the Beijing Olympic
Games may have reminded some of the Mao-era
mass parades in the Tiananmen Square. But
not to the people across the world who were
glued to the TV sets what with their fire
works, pyro-techniques, and more than 2000
beating drums with their hands and
florescent drum sticks in perfect unison.
And their verdict was unanimous: China has
arrived though Tion Kwa, a Bernard Schwartz
Fellow at the Asia Society in Washington DC
prefers to dub it as China's synchronised
anachronism.

According to him, it is not easy to think of
such a display as being in line with modern
norms. "The Chinese economy may be more
market-oriented today than ever before, but,
because the Communist Party is still in
charge, China remains out of sync with those
parts of Asia and the rest of the world
where communism has long since come to be
viewed as an anachronistic oddity," Tion
opines.

Many studies

Of late, there have been many studies that
have focused increasingly on the internal
factors at play in China. One such study by
Minxin Pei opines that there are several
systemic risks in Chinese domestic politics.
In his view unless these are addressed
seriously, the survival of the regime may be
at risk. Pei, who is director of the China
Programme at the Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace, goes on to say that the
surging pace of the Chinese economy is
blinding the world to its political risks.

We cannot be oblivious to another reality.
It is that from Thailand to Myanmar and from
Sri Lanka to Nigeria Chinese goods are being
lapped up by the dozen every day. Simply
because these are affordable at all ends of
the scale.

In Pakistan for instance, as the Lahore
daily The Nation says, Chinese motorbikes,
medicines, toys and shoes are forty to
forty-five percent cheaper. Stationery
making units are on the verge of collapse
because of availability of cheap Chinese
imported and smuggled items like pencils,
another Lahore daily the Daily Times
reported on June 6.

In the El Dorado of the 21st century, United
States, consumers looking for low prices
have snapped up Chinese-made goods in recent
years, Economic Policy Institute, a
Left-leaning Washington
think-tank says. Its finding that the US
trade deficit with China cost 2.3 million
American jobs between 2001 and 2007 may fuel
debate about free trade ahead of November
presidential elections.

New global order

More so because a professor of management
and human resources at the Ohio State
University has just published his new book
asking Americans to be prepared for a new
global order. "Hundreds of years ago China
was one of the world's leading powers and
they want to be number one again," Oded
Shenkar writes in his book, The Chinese
Century: The Rising Chinese Economy And Its
Impact On The Global Economy, The Balance Of
Power And Your Job (Wharton School of
Publishing).

These pundits are worried that China could
one day pass the US as a major economic
power. Well their concern is understandable.
But in their America centric pre-occupation,
they are ignoring another reality. It is
that China has taken a leaf out of colonial
masters of yore in its single minded pursuit
of geo-political, strategic, energy and
economic goals.

Politics, as a scholar once said, is built
on two foundations: military and economic.
The two interact and support each other.
This is clearly brought out by the power
play China
is practising in Africa and Asia. Ian
Bremmer, President of Eurasia Group, a
political risk consultancy sums up the
situation thus: 'The go out strategy has
paid remarkable dividends and will continue
to do so at least in the short term'.

There is a flip-side to the Chinese rise
and its business deals with unstable
regimes: Beijing has become a target of
attacks from Pakistan
to Iraq, Nigeria, Yemen and Mogadishu. The
abductors are often faceless local groups
with scores to settle with the authorities.

Well documented

Like the gunmen in the Southern Niger Delta,
who had abducted five Chinese workers on
January 5, 2007. "They did not want money but release of four
prisoners of Niger Delta origin in the
Nigerian jails," according to a Reuters
report of the day from
Abuja.

The attacks on Chinese engineers and workers
across Pakistan are well documented. From
the turbulent FATA region bordering
Afghanistan to Islamabad, Chinese have not
been safe in recent years. They are not a
large community numbering around 5000 in all
but they are present in all segments of the
Pak economy from the lowly massage parlours
in the capital to mining, drilling and
construction of telecom towers. The message
by the Lal Majid clerics (June 23, 2007) is
illustrative of the local mood.

While releasing seven Chinese women 'picked
up' by the students of the Madrasa attached
to the Masjid from a nearby massage parlour,
the clerics said, 'while we value friendship
with China we will not allow even Chinese
women to work as prostitutes and damage the
morale of Muslims.' The pick-up and
subsequent events had led to Chinese
pressure on the military regime of the day
to act against the mosque authorities.

That the Chinese are pursuing what an Indian
Leftist calls as Marwari capitalism is also
clear from another aspect of Chinese
involvement in Pakistan. Jiye Sindh Quami
Mahaz is against China's financial aid to construction of big dams like the
Bhasha dam for instance. Several rallies in
Sindh and the Northern Areas have not moved
the Chinese investment agency to rethink its
offer.

Economic carrots

Apparently, Beijing is concerned with the
economic carrots Islamabad under General Musharraf had dangled. These ranged from a
rail link parallel to the Karkoram highway
ending at Havelian. That will be connected
to Gwadar port, which provides the Chinese
alternative sea route to foreign trade.

Like the earlier generation of colonialists,
the Dragon today is ever willing to play
with whoever suits its bill. For it, ends
matter. May be for it the adage precept is
better than practice and the Gandhian
concept of ends and means to an end matter
equally are dated.

Consider how Beijing had dealt with the LTTE
and Colombo alike. Also how in Myanmar
Chinese nationals carried out illegal gold
mining in Laiza and Namsan Yang areas, some
80 km ( 50 miles) south east of Myitkyina,
Kachin state. Yangoon Junta was forced to
step in and ban all mining activity in the
area since the second week of June, 2008.

China
earned the wrath of local movement for
justice in Northern Niger with its patronage
of the Niger government. Chinese companies
supplied arms to the authorities as the
trade off for the permission to undertake
uranium mining. But faced with abductions,
uranium mining was shut down (2007). China
has supplied arms to several governments and
rebels in Africa for mutual benefit.

Take for instance China-Sudan ties. China
buys two thirds of Sudan's oil and in return
sells arms with no concern whatsoever for
the Darfur imbroglio.

Human rights

Johannesburg's
publication, The Weekender reports that the
Mugabe regime is getting Chinese weapons.
Foreign office in Beijing termed the report
as a groundless rumour. Professor Humphrey
Moshi of the University of Dar-es-Salaam
doesn't appear to be a taker of the denial.
This is clear from his advice to China: Give
up engagement with rouge nations.

His contention is that China's engagement
with such countries undermines human rights
values. In his view, "Chinese investments
will likely fuel conflicts as also delay the
conflict resolution and mediation process."

A close study of Chinese presence in Africa and Asia shows that the professor's advice has no takers in
Beijing. Because, as Drew Thompson says in a
James Foundation report (Volume 4 Issue 24,
December 7, 2007) its efforts are aimed at
creating a paradigm of globalisation that
favours China. His conclusion is based on
his study of how Chinese interests in Africa expanded to spheres of influence and access to
energy and raw materials through diplomacy,
trade, aid and investment.

These observations are equally valid for
Asia since
China has adopted the same route in
countries like Sri Lanka
and Myanmar. What should however be of equal
concern is China's
promotion of its own brand of economic
development and reform, a model amongst the
Third World countries. Beijing has been
encouraging friendly countries to send high
level delegations to learn from Chinese
experiments and experience.

Observation

Pertinent is the observation of George
Friedman, the Stratfor expert. Says he: "The
dramatic economic development has benefited
the coast and left the interior - the vast
majority of Chinese - behind. It has also
left China vulnerable to global economic
forces that it cannot control and cannot
accommodate. This is not new in Chinese
history, but its usual resolution is in
regionalism and the weakening of the central
government. Deng's gamble is being played
out by his successors. He dealt the hand.
They have to play it.

The question on the table is whether the
economic basis of China is a foundation or a
balancing act. If the former, it can last a
long time. If the latter, everyone falls
down eventually. There appears to be little
evidence that it is a foundation. It
excludes most of the Chinese from the game,
people who are making less than $100 a
month."